Longer hair which is tied, braided, or otherwise secured in one or more elongated extensions or "tails" to the back of the head, has long been popular among both women and men. Generally, such hair is pulled together toward the upper back of the scalp, above the location of the rear portion of the band of a hat, cap or other piece of head wear, if such is worn.
The result is that the gathering of the hair near the scalp, which by its nature forms a protruding bundle at that point, must be stuffed under the head wear, with the remainder of the hair extending outwardly and downwardly below the rear edge or band of the head wear. Alternatively, the wearer may bunch up the hair on the top of the wearer's head, and then place the head wear on the head. This is uncomfortable, and the accumulated hair interferes with the placement of the head wear on the wearer's head. With closely fitting caps (e.g., billed or visored "baseball" style caps, etc.) such a configuration can be uncomfortable for the wearer of the headgear. Passing the hair through the opening above the usual adjustment band of such caps provides little additional comfort, as it is generally still too low for optimum positioning relative to the gathered hair at the upper back of the scalp. In cases where hats or caps have a specific, non-adjustable size, there is no such rear opening, which further exacerbates the situation.
Some examples of innovative head wear items to accommodate the hair of the wearer are disclosed by the following patents. Fish et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,628, discloses a vented cap with a permanent opening at the rear.
Holt, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,218, describes a removable cover for an opening between the adjustment strap and the head cover.
Leopold, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,509, shows a cap with a rear opening for a ponytail and a hair band fastened at the rear opening.
Kronenberger shows a cap with a rear opening that is adjustable in diameter to accept various sized ponytails in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,854.
Stevenson et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,145, disclose a cap with a hole at the top of the crown for accepting a ponytail. The hole has a removable closure that stores inside the cap. A similar cap with one or two holes in the crown for the wearer's ponytail(s) is disclosed by Higgins in U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,249.
Murray, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,695, discloses a cap adjustment strap-covering device with various decorative attachments. A protective helmet with a hair entraining aperture is disclosed by Ryan in U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,454.
Revson, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,929, discloses a cap with a sealable storage pocket at the rear, adjacent the adjustment strap opening.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,585 Stroup describes a headband with a ponytail holder, the headband having U-shaped ends that fasten around the ponytail.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,799 by Armenta et al. shows a cap with a hole in the rear for accepting a ponytail of the wearer. The hole has a covering that contains a number of slots that are sized to allow passage of the ponytail through the covering, yet grip the hair to hold the cap in place. The slots radiate from a central point in the covering.
Accordingly, an unmet need is seen for a head wear which provides a neat and attractive passage at the upper back portion of the item, for the passage of the hair of a longer hairstyle there through. The head wear should also be usable and attractive for the wearer who does not have an accumulation of long hair at the back of the head. Kronenberger, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,854, and Armenta et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,799, have provided extensive discussions of this topic. The content of these two patents are incorporated herein by reference.